Noise: Muffling the Jet

After years of enduring the ear-splitting
shriek of jetliners flying over their homes, residents of communities
near airports can at last look forward to quieter skies. By 1971, FAA
Associate Administrator Oscar Bakke announced last week, the aviation
agency will most likely demand that the engines on some 2,100 existing
commercial jets be muffled to reduce their noise to a still unspecified
level.

The FAA also announced that noise limits have been established for the
forthcoming breed of "jumbo jets" Boeing's 747, Lockheed's L-1011 and
McDonnell Douglas' DC-10. The legal maximum for jumbo noise will be
considerably lower than the...